Staff profile

Professor Frances Maratos


Professor of Psychology and Affective Science

Academic Frances Maratos, smiling.

Subject

Psychology

College

College of Health, Psychology and Social Care

Department

School of Psychology

Research centre

Healthy Ageing and Mental Wellbeing Research Centre

ORCiD ID

0000-0001-5738-6491

Campus

Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

Email

f.maratos@derby.ac.uk

About

Professor Frances Maratos is a chartered psychologist and a leading expert in affective science. Her ground-breaking research in the field of wellbeing, including Compassion in Education, is world renown and she leads provision of our Compassion CPD’s and curriculums at the University of Derby. Indeed, her research has centred on understanding psychological, neurological, cognitive and physiological correlates of emotional wellbeing. In particular, her research has contributed to understanding anxiety and its relationship with eating disorders, understanding processes of pain, threat and self-criticism, and the use of compassion for improved emotion regulation and wellbeing across various populations. She have published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in these specific areas, as well as several book chapters.

Professor Maratos has further been involved in the successful award of over £1.3 million in grant funding. For example, she is currently serving as an external expert on a five-year US NIH grant concerned with the ‘Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Critical Rumination and Self-Reassurance and Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in Youth’. Prior to this, she has received funding from several recognised agencies including The Reed Foundation (to investigate Compassion in Schools), Leverhulme Trust (to investigate Compassion to Promote Wellbeing) and INNOVATE UK (to investigate errors in medication). 

Research interests

Professor Maratos leads on the UoD's Compassion in Education Programme of Research and Training. As part of this, her and her team have developed several CPDs and curriculums to improve the wellbeing of both pupils and staff in the education sector. See Compassion in Education and Compassion in Schools. 

Generally, to aid the comprehensive and robust investigation of research in the field of emotion/affective science, Professor Maratos adopts an integrative approach to research and regularly uses a wide variety of methods to pursue research questions and evaluate the efficacy of the interventions and initiatives her and her team develop. These include psychophysiological methods (e.g. eye-tracking), behavioural methods (e.g. questionnaire measures and performance accuracy measures), physiological measures (e.g. stress hormones, blood pressure and heart-rate variability), neuroimaging methods (measures of MEG, EEG and fMRI) and qualitative methods (e.g. thematic analysis). 

Further research interests include processes of self-compassion and self-criticism, emotional regulation and wellbeing, visual attention and effects of related psychological phenomena such as cognitive load and expertise, and visual attention, emotional processing and relevance

Professor Maratos has supervised eight PhD students through to successful completion. These include Dr Kirsten McEwan (now an Associate Professor), Dr Kornanong Yuenyongchaiwat, Dr Lauren Kelly, Dr Julia Wahl, Dr Omimah Said, Dr Ann Kirkman, Dr Hajra Ashra and Dr Daniel Gaffiero, whose PhD research has been focused within the fields of Compassion, Anxiety, Self-Criticism, Physiological Health and Pain, in adult and/or child populations. 

Her current PhD students include:

Prof Maratos is interested in taking on further students who have an interest in emotion, emotional wellbeing, relevance and compassion/self-criticism. 

Recent publications

For a full list of my 60 plus publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile. Below is a list of my most recent publications since 2020:

* = Corresponding Author

Membership of professional bodies

Professional interests

Professor Maratos is a section editor for Cognitive Processing

Previously, she was an associate editor for Frontiers in Psychology: Consciousness Research

Qualifications

Postgraduate qualifications

Research qualifications

Occupational qualifications

Recent conferences

Recent Invited Talks/Keynotes/Panels (limited to the past five years)

Experience in industry

In the media

Focus on Compassion in Education:

Focus on compassion for wellbeing and prosocial behaviours:

Focus on COVID-19:

Picky/Fussy Eating in Children:

Medical Practice: Patient-Doctor Relations/Medication Errors:

Painkiller Addiction & Measurement:

I am also quite often invited to speak on local radio (e.g. BBC Radio Derby GEM 106, Mansfield FM etc.) or in the national press (e.g. the Guardian) and I have featured on local television (for example East Midlands Today).

International experience

Professor Maratos is serving as an external expert collaborator on a five-year $1,000,000 National Institute of Health Grant, with Anastacia Kudinova to understand 'Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Critical Rumination and Self-Reassurance and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviour in Youth.'

Dates: 4/1/2020 – 3/31/2025

Find out more about the project

Teaching responsibilities

Guest lecturing on a range of on-campus and online modules at UG and MSc level - across the Colleges of Health, Psychology and Social Care and Arts, Humanities and Education. Topics Professor Maratos lectures are within the fields of: biological psychology, cognitive psychology, education and educational psychology, psychopathology and mental health/wellbeing. 

Two people in a meeting viewed through an open doorway
Why it is time to end our obsession with 'resilience'

Resilience is increasingly seen as something the education system should foster and employers should encourage and develop. But is resilience just telling people to get good at putting up with a bad situation? On Employee Appreciation Day, Professors Frances Maratos and Tristram Hooley from the University of Derby ask whether we should move away from resilience and towards compassion.

Posted: 29 February 2024
By: Professor Frances Maratos
A young man in a hoodie and a face mask standing against a wall with graffiti which reads
Could current Covid messaging be counter­productive?

Professor Frances Maratos, Associate Professor and Reader in Emotion Science at the University of Derby, explains why she and fellow psychologists are concerned about recent messaging about Covid-19.

Posted: 23 September 2020
By: Professor Frances Maratos
A small child looking out of a window
Helping children overcome their isolation worries

Professor Frances Maratos, Associate Professor of Emotion Science at the University of Derby, offers suggestions on how to help children manage their worries about COVID-19 and self isolation.

Posted: 3 April 2020
By: Professor Frances Maratos
A pupil in a classroom environment looking into the foreground
The UK education system – have we got it wrong?

Professor Frances Maratos discusses whether in terms of the health and well-being of our pupils and teachers, the UK education system is arguably nearing breaking point, after recent reports reveal that up to 54% of teachers state their job ‘often’ or ‘always’ impacts negatively on their mental and/or physical health.

Posted: 4 March 2020
By: Professor Frances Maratos
A close up of fruit kiwi pineapple berries apple
Advice for parents: What to do if your child is a picky eater

Professor Frances Maratos, Reader in Emotion Science, and Jayne Trovati, PhD student, explain give top tips to parents who have children who are picky eaters.

Posted: 23 January 2018
By: Professor Frances Maratos
Clown in black and white
Why are people scared of clowns?

Professor Frances Maratos, Reader in Emotion Science at the University of Derby, explains the psychology behind why people are afraid of clowns.

Posted: 25 October 2017
By: Professor Frances Maratos